Misfortune, and How They Overcome
by The Uninspired
Summary: The odds are against them frequently, but it's going to take a lot more than that to keep them down. The Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee has a lot of work to do, and these are the stories of how they make the most of it. (Updated every Tuesday!)
1. restoration

**a/n; **Despite all the things I should be doing, I'm taking up yet _another_ challenge, one that should be very familiar to you all: WishingDreamer5's Hollow Bastion theme challenge. I know there's plenty of these out there, so I'll try my best to make this one unique. And here's something new: regular updates! I'm thinking every Tuesday.**  
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I hope you all like the Restoration Committee, because I certainly do. Despite this, I don't own them, or Kingdom Hearts, or much copyrighted material, really.

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**01. restoration.**

"Welcome home."

The statement is quiet, almost unheard. She glances sideways over at her companion - his face is set, emotionless, a muscle in his jaw jumping. He surveys the landscape silently, stormy blue eyes darting back and forth in a routine manner.

The irony stings, but there's some truth in it. The Radiant Garden was their home, their everything. How many hours had they spent here, how many carefree moments had they shared? Numbers didn't matter now, because it had all gone to waste.

Hollow Bastion. That's its new name, and it fit - the beautiful architecture had been reduced to rubble, all covered with a thin dusting of blue earth. The remnants of Ansem's castle had been warped and twisted, and the once luxurious towers had collapsed, various parts hanging by threads. All of the water still flows eagerly, as if greeting its former friends, but all of the channels had been destroyed, leading to puddles and pools among the ruins. It's familiar in a sad way.

"We just have a lot of work to do," Yuffie quips from the other side of him, rocking forward on her heels. "It's still home."

Looking over the treacherous scene, it's hard to agree, but Aerith always found a way. "It needs a little fixing, that's all."

Behind them, the hatch to the cockpit of the Gummi ship sprang open, and with it, a billow of smoke. Cid emerged from the cloud, coughing and waving the air from his face. "Holy hell, that was awesome!" he said with a grin, jumping down onto the gravel with surprising grace. His face was smeared with soot and grease. "Engine decided to overheat after you all left - guess the ol' Highwind doesn't take too kindly t' long trips, huh?"

Upon noticing the grim looks on all of their faces, Cid's expression fades. He looks past them, summing up the world quickly. "So this is what we have to work with."

"Only sort of," Leon says, kicking away a chunk of a wall near his boot. "Nothing here is inhabitable but Villain's Vale, so we have to rough it there for a few months, or at least until we can get a house to serve as the headquarters. Merlin should be coming to help soon."

"Let me get this straight," Cid grumbled, grinding his toothpick between his molars. "We have to camp out in that damn witch's castle until that old coot of a wizard can fix something up for us?"

Upon Leon's nod of confirmation, Cid lets out a groan.

"Well, it's not much," he mutters, "and it's almost broken beyond repair but it's home."

"It's _our_ home," Aerith murmurs, "and no one's ever going to change that again."


	2. flowers

**a/n;** Posting a day early because why not?

I should warn you all that I do ship Cloud/Aerith, so that'll be mentioned sometimes. Not overwhelmingly so, but occasionally. It pops up here.

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**02. flowers.**

"Hey! I've got a surprise for y'all when I come back!"

"What can you find out there that will surprise us?" Leon responded flatly, and Cid just scowled. The engineer had left the Bastion about two weeks ago to gather some restoration supplies, and was taking his sweet time returning. "Seriously, the universe has thrown everything possible at us. It's getting pretty damn hard to surprise us. When are you getting back?"

"Well, aren't you just a freakin' ray of sunshine?" Cid grumbled. "Don't get your boxers in a bunch, Leonhart. There's a handy warp hole next to Traverse Town. I'll be there in a few hours." He ended the transmission, and Leon sat in his makeshift office in silence for a while, staring out the window. He could hear the roar of the falls from here, but he liked the constant sound. (Yuffie and Aerith had picked bedrooms farther up in the castle simply to escape the noise, claiming that they couldn't sleep with it.) The window overlooked the barren landscape of the world, where the remnants of the town sat in eerie silence.

But on the window sat a pot, and in that pot, a seed had been planted. Aerith had been insistent on brightening the place up, and she did it in her own way - planting flowers. Since they had deemed most of the world unsafe as of right now (no one ever went out alone), Aerith was restricted to pots inside the castle. Soon, every window had a flowerbed, and every table had a pot, all of them filled with the unique blue earth and given a few seeds. No one was complaining.

That day, Leon noticed that a little leaf had finally sprouted from the soil. And that day, it turned out that Cid's 'surprise' was an old friend who had all but disappeared when Hollow Bastion succumbed to the Heartless.

They had worried about Cloud at first, and when Leon had begun his tour around the worlds to fight the Heartless, he had looked for him. He had looked for everyone in every world he visited. After a while, they all just gave up - Cloud was lost. They figured that if he wanted to be found, he would make himself known, and clearly he hadn't. While everyone else moved on to other concerns, Aerith never really gave up hope. She always said that he'd come back when he was ready.

And clearly, he had.

Yuffie was all but ready to pounce on Cloud, to reprimand him and ask him what had kept him away from home so long. But Aerith approached him first, and Leon held Yuffie back. This was their moment, after so long apart.

Not only did Aerith's flowers brighten the place up, but all of her hope for Cloud and this world in general did, too.

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**a/n;** and I mean, hey, who doesn't like feedback? ;)


	3. ninja

**a/n;** Happy Tuesday! Here, have something silly.

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**03. ninja.**

The alarm clock on the nightstand read 3:17AM, and he couldn't be any more pissed about it.

Leon scowled, turning over on his bed for the umpteenth time that hour. It was funny how he could work all day, but his mind would _still_ refuse to shut down, letting him stir in his unpleasant thoughts for hours and refusing to let him rest. He laid there for five more minutes, glaring holes in the wall, before convincing himself that he was parched and needed some water. A short trip to the kitchen would help, wouldn't it?

He stepped into the hallway, quickly deciding not to turn on the light. He didn't need to disturb anyone else with his restlessness. Carefully, he maneuvered himself down the stairs, willing the ancient house not to creak, and soon found himself in the kitchen.

The ground floor of Merlin's home was essentially one huge room, which the Committee had turned into a cross between a break room and a kitchen. Merlin was the only one who slept on the ground floor, and his room was basically a small little nook without a door. Leon could hear the wizard snoring.

_I just can't get a break, can I?_ he grumbled mentally, using the sparse moonlight to guide his path. He grabbed a mug from the cupboard, making a note to himself to thank Cid for keeping the hinges on everything so well-oiled, and was just about to grab the pitcher of water when he felt a breath on his neck - warm and barely noticeable, but a breath nonetheless.

In a matter of abrupt movements, Leon had dropped the glass, whipped around, and pinned his attacker down on the ground by the throat, knocking over a table in the process. The noise was like an explosion in the near silent house, and the effects were instantaneous - Merlin sprang to life with a splutter, the lights turning on at a wave of his wand. Somewhere upstairs, Cid had rolled off his bed with a sudden jerk. Cloud and Aerith's footsteps were already coming down the hall.

And, pinned to the floor, turning blue from her windpipe being restricted, was Yuffie.

Quickly, Leon drew back, just as Cloud and Aerith showed up in the doorway. Yuffie gagged melodramatically, pulling herself into a sitting position and throwing Leon a glare.

"What was that all about?" she rasped, rubbing her throat. Aerith kneeled down next to her, gently pulling away her hand to check for damage. "Geez, Squall, all I wanted was a glass of water like you."

"You snuck up on me!" Leon protested, adding quietly under his breath, "and it's Leon." He looked over at Cloud for backup, but the fellow swordsman offered him nothing but a confused expression.

"So your first reaction is to slam them into the ground?" Yuffie snorted, and painstakingly brought herself to her feet. "I saw we vote Squall out of the group, for unnecessary violence. And general meanness towards the token ninja."

"I have to ask, Yuffie," Merlin said from the side, stroking a few knots from his beard, "wouldn't you have done the same if Leon had snuck up behind you?"

"Are you kidding?" Yuffie exclaimed, as if this were the most ridiculous statement she had ever heard. "No one could ever sneak up on the Great Ninja Yuffie!"

Cloud rolled his eyes, already on his way back up the stairs with Aerith. Simply ignoring the comment, Leon turned to get what he had come down here to get in the first place - a stupid glass of water.


	4. baby

**a/n: **sorry for the late update! nanowrimo kinda distracted me.

**04. baby.**

The Heartless generally stayed out of the borough and marketplace, but today they had hit both. Despite the Committee's best efforts, the impact of the raid was obvious - the accessory shop had nearly collapsed, there was a gaping hole in the side of McDuck's massive freezer, and several citizens were still trying to put out the fire raging through the item shop.

"Count your people!" Leon had barked to the trembling masses, just as the Heartless had retreated (for now). "Mourn your dead, but report all casualties. All wounded, see our healers at the medic tent just outside of the borough." He gestured vaguely to the exit of the marketplace, and slowly, the crowds of terrified people began to disperse.

No one had seen Cid since then.

They would've found him in the borough, out of sight from the medic tent, trying to free a few citizens from the rubble. The crane, which had sat dormant for the past few months, had been practically ripped to shreds in the attack, along with the wall nearby, causing a massive amount of damage and effectively trapping a few of the citizens in a mess of refuse.

Cid was working furiously, using his spear to dislodge chunks of the wall that cut him off from the citizens. He was standing on a part of the crane, working furiously and silently. The people trapped were shouting for help on the other side of the blockage, sounding desperate.

He dug a hole, leaning down and looking in. A woman and two girls were in there - one girl was lying on the ground, her mother bent over her. The girl closest to the hole, the littlest, noticed his face appearing and darted over.

"You hurt?" Cid asked, spitting his toothpick out on the ground. The girl shook her head, pointing back at her sister.

"Sissy is, though," she told him, her eyes wide. "A block hit her on the head and she..." The tears welled up in her eyes. Cid gritted his teeth. This girl couldn't have been more than four years old, and was staring at him as if he could make everything better. And he would have to, wouldn't he?

"Don't worry, sweetheart. We'll get you all out of there." He pulled away from the hole, looking over in the general direction of the medic tent. Though doubtful that Aerith could hear him from where she was, he shouted, "Yo, Aerith! I could use a hand over here!"

With a heavy sigh, he looked over at the wreckage and tried to decide if he could scale it. There was a nice chunk of bent crane that he could use as a step, but walking over that ledge would be difficult seeing as it was _so damn narrow_ - but there were other spots for him to climb up if he could keep his balance.

He began to climb.

By the time Merlin and Cloud were dispatched to help him, Cid was already at the top of the destroyed wall, looking down on the victims.

"We've got back up!" he told the entrapped citizens with a grin, waving at the two men (with his other hand keeping him firmly rooted on the wall). "We'll get you outta here in no time. Merlin can magic us up a rope."


	5. eyes

**a/n;** This is set before BbS, actually, and includes one of my weirder little headcanons - Kairi is Ansem the Wise's granddaughter. Just a small little detail here.

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The Radiant Garden had always regarded Ansem the Wise as a just ruler and a kind man, and he had never agreed.

"The amount of complaints I get per day would say quite the contrary," he would say with a laugh, a twinkle in his eye. "And if you ever get the opportunity to dine with my apprentices and me, you might not find me so kind."

Most found ways to contradict him, others just accepted his modesty with a smile, and some just took his word for it. After all, the sage king of the town called the 'City of Lights' had to have been doing something right, regardless of the public's opinion of him.

And then there was Aerith, who had come to really appreciate him from a very young age.

Ansem was celebrating the birth of his granddaughter, a beautiful healthy girl named Kairi. Though it had been half a year, the family in the castle had only made the announcement recently. As such, the entire town was plunged into a festival - vendors put up their carts everywhere, children ran rampant, and adults enjoyed their day off, because clearly nothing bad could happen on this day of joy, correct?

The festivities were well underway when an announcement went out. Children whispered to one another, adults discussed it in hushed tones; Kairi, at a scant 6 months, had fallen ill. All the best healers were called to the castle, and, to Aerith's surprise, her own mother was summoned as well, with a request for her to bring her finest flowers. Her mother, a flower vendor, explained the meanings of the flowers as she gathered them.

With a bouquet loaded with snapdragons ("for hope"), sunflowers ("for adoration, of course"), and yarrow ("not particularly pretty, but for good health"), the two Gainsboroughs headed out for Ansem's castle.

The halls were vast and lavishly decorated. It all possessed an official, empty feeling, but at the same time Aerith could feel the energy of the castle beneath her feet. A few servants rushed forward, gently ushering them through the castle through the winding corridors until they came to the nursery. The doors were wide open, but this part of the castle was silent, anyway. The walls of the room were mostly glass panels, offering a breathtaking view of the city, but the solid walls were covered in paintings of animals, kings and queens, and happy people doing happy things.

Aerith was awestruck. While her mother offered up the bouquet, she looked around, her eyes wide to take it all in. She barely noticed Ansem in the room, and shook herself out of her daze when he kneeled down to her level.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" he asked her gently, looking around as well. Aerith, feeling the heat rise to her face and staring adamantly at her shoes now, nodded vigorously. "The people were modeled after citizens from the town. Perhaps you're on these walls - a hopeful little girl with the some of the brightest eyes I've ever seen."

That caused Aerith to look to him, and he smiled . His eyes were kind, and crinkled up as he grinned - she compared the color to a tiger-lily, though she had never seen that particular, luminous shade of orange before.

And perhaps that's why the adult Aerith found it so hard to believe that Ansem the Wise had plunged the Radiant Garden into darkness: to her, he was just the king with the kind smile who told her that her eyes were beautiful.


	6. mischief

a/n; I'M SORRY OMG

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Trouble, trouble, trouble! That's all kids were these days, troublesome. If Merlin had 5 munny for every time a miscreant had disturbed him in some way in the past three years alone, he'd be able to buy out the entire item shop _and_ everything that Mog had to offer. Maybe he could afford a few ice creams for few of his younger companions that didn't take pleasure in rustling his feathers.

When he accepted King Mickey's request to go to Traverse Town to keep an eye on things, he hadn't expected to be thrown into _this_ mess. He was supposed to keep an eye on Sora and make sure all went according to plan.

He hadn't expected to be living in a house with teenagers and barely-adults.

It's an interesting experience, to say the least. Leon and Aerith act as the parents of the house, waking everyone up at regular times and keeping everything functioning. Their routine is surprisingly orderly and incredibly rigid - few are allowed to sleep in, meals are often cut short, and the scheduling is intense.

Mainly because of Yuffie, there's still a good amount of nonsense that happens. They're young people, after all, and they've been fighting the forces of evil since they first became teenagers - they have to unwind somehow. Pranks are pulled. Parties are arranged at least twice a year. They take one night a month off to just unwind. During duties in which members are accompanied by partners, there's a good deal of teasing and joking, depending on the pair. Often times, these shenanigans end in something bad happen to Merlin's house, or an argument breaking out, or some other unfortunate situation.

But really, kids are always going to be mischievous in some way. Merlin usually resented that fact, but he doesn't mind so much anymore.


	7. cry

**a/n;** the holidays and school hit me like a sack of bricks, so here, have a thursday update. i'll try to get back on a regular schedule, i promise.

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"C'mon, Cid, don't do this to me!"

Yuffie fell to her knees, looking up at her elder with wide eyes. Cid simply stared down at her, his expression bemused and arms crossed over his chest. In his hand was the last popsicle in the fridge, which was dangerously close to dripping.

"Sorry, Yuff, you had your chance," he grunted, taking a step back, but Yuffie simply scooted up closer to him.

"Please please _please_ Cid, I'll do anything! I'll...I'll do your laundry for a month, I'll get the takeout when it's your turn to provide dinner, I'll even do your chores! Popsicles are the one thing Leon doesn't restrict, Cid - and it's the last one. Aerith doesn't go shopping for another week..."

"That's not my problem." Cid brought the popsicle close to his mouth, but stopped when he noticed Yuffie's face. Yuffie was a talented kid, with skills including, but not limited to: advanced acrobatics, deadly aim with a shuriken, and acting. Currently, she was putting the latter into effect, staring up at him with huge, gleaming eyes.

For a second, he felt bad. Leon _had_ been cracking down on her after her tomfoolery ended with a section of Villain's Vale collapsing - it had gotten to the point where he made her turn the lights out at 10PM sharp and didn't let her go anywhere unsupervised. A girl like Yuffie didn't do well while being put under such rules, and maybe this one little stick of sugary ice would be enough to keep her in his debt for a while. (Plus, not having to do his laundry for a month sounded like a pretty sweet deal to him. He _hated_ laundry.)

A tear began to leak from Yuffie's eye. "Hmm...nope," he finally said, licking the popsicle as obnoxiously as possible. Yuffie let out an anguished sob, hanging her head.


	8. pain in the

a/n; seriously considering moving the update day to thursday. enjoy.

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"But he's going to be all right?"

Cloud was talking to Aerith quietly outside of Leon's room. Tifa, covered in dust and cuts, paced anxiously in the hallway. Yuffie sat on the floor, about to fall asleep.

"Oh, he'll definitely be fine," Aerith whispered back, holding an Ether in her shaking hand. She had used too much magic in too little time. "I'm just saying he won't be happy about it."

"How bad will the recovery be?" he asked with a grimace.

"He won't be able to walk for a while, at least not until the wound heals...everything's going to be a lot more difficult."

"Can we see him?" Yuffie asked from the floor, rubbing her eye.

The room was dark, but Leon was by the window, laying on his belly. He let out a groan when he heard the door open, crossing his arms over his pillow and shoving his face into it.

"I told you no visitors," he mumbled. "This is far too embarrassing."

"Everyone gets hurt, Leon," she said gently. Nonetheless , it was clear that both Yuffie and Tifa were trying not to laugh, and Cloud was repressing a smirk. Aerith shot them a stern look, but that was just about the straw breaking the camel's back - Yuffie let out a giggle, which quickly grew into a full out roar of laughter.

"Did that Heartless really slash you in the butt?" she snorted. Tifa grinned. Leon groaned again, looking up from the pillow and giving the ninja the stink eye.

"It's not as funny as you'd think," he growled. "You try getting an injury there and tell me how it feels."

"Wait," Tifa interrupted, just as Yuffie was about to make a smart remark, "does that mean that this slash is a pain in the..."

"Don't say it," Leon said weakly, almost pleading. There was a short period of silence. Cloud awkwardly scratched his neck.

"Ass!" Yuffie shouted, and she followed up the exclamation by slapping her hands over her mouth. "I'm sorry, Squall," she mumbled through her fingers, "but someone had to. That was too good to pass up."

With a heavy sigh, Leon responded, "It's Leon."


	9. happiness

**a/n**; sorry!

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Sora, Riku, and Kairi were visiting the Radiant Garden for a week. They were all welcomed into the spare rooms in the HQ, as they were all honorary members...but they were fully expected to become a part of the working schedule during their stay.

However, they did not complain, as the whole Committee loved it when they visited, which meant a few things: everyone was even more friendly than usual, breaks were slightly longer and shifts were shorter to accommodate for the new people in the rotation, and Aerith cooked the whole week, which meant delicious food for a solid seven days, not including leftovers.

Needless to say, the entire Committee was excited. The smell of freshly baked goods filled the borough, and they all found themselves lingering around Merlin's house at lunchtime. They watched closely as she came around with a tray, a dish for each of the members on it.

"Strawberry shortcake," she told them as she passed them out, grinning. "Strawberries from my own garden, shortcake made from the finest ingredients, and hand-whipped cream, imported right from the best farms in the French Countryside."

She set the tray down and sat down next to Cloud, watching everyone with anticipation. There was a simultaneous moan of pleasure as they all took their first bite.

"Sweet Kingdom Hearts," Sora mumbled, stuffing half of the cake into his face. "This doesn't even taste like food - it's like the word 'amazing' turned into a thing and jumped onto this plate."

"No food is ever going to live up to this," Cid had to agree, as he scraped at the crumbs and leftover cream with his fork. "I think you've out done yourself, girly."

"This is what I imagine happiness tastes like," Leon put in, closing his eyes and savoring the taste. "It has to."

There was a general murmur of consent. Aerith was pleased, grinning round at all of them. And since then, no other dish has ever lived up to those shortcakes.


End file.
